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Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage

397 points · 517 comments · sensanaty

  1. tptacek · · focus · HN ↗
    So, basically, not a meaningful amount of water at all. Credit to the story authors for taking the time to frame what 13MM gallons actually works out to.
    1. mrb · · focus · HN ↗
      Yes. As another comparison point, 13 million gallons per year amounts to 24 gallons per minute which is about 5 (five) bathtub faucets running 24/7/365.

      The water bill alone would be only $100k/yr assuming average US domestic rate of $8 per 1000 gallons.

      1. rtpg · · focus · HN ↗
        Median US household water usage is 130 gallons per day according to Wiki.[0]

        So ~280 households worth of water? Though the US seems to be on the high end, using 3x more than Japan and 4x more than France (according to a random website)[1]

        To state the obvious most people are not running big faucets all the time, and in fact are using way less.

        It seems like a bit of a self-own to not just use household or per-capita usage here to prove a point though.

        [0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Residential_water_use_in_the_U.S._and_Canada" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Residential_water_use_in_the_U... [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldometers.info&#x2F;water&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.worldometers.info&#x2F;water&#x2F;

        1. mrb · · focus · HN ↗
          What the water figures show is that water usage is not the problem of these data centers. It&#x27;s a drop in the bucket, literally. Yet another way to see it is that given the average weather in Lincoln, NE (29 inches of rain annually) it rains 480 million gallons annually on the 600 acres campus that Google&#x27;s data center is located on. So it would be possible to collect only 3% of this rainwater, and it would be enough to cover all their water needs. Water, at the local scale of this data center, an infinitely renewable resource.

          Other issues than water are far worse, like pollution associated with the manufacturing and running of all the data center gear. Water is not the issue.

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